b^O (/ . 1st- ,A , «v-«- < 






ADDEESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



JjlL % Jitaie ^grintliural %mi\% 



ANNUAL MEETING, ALBANY, FEBRUARY 9, 1860. 



ABRAHAM B. CONGER. 



A_ D D M E S S 



DELIVERED AT THE 



ANNUAL MEETING 



N, Y, STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



)W 



ALBANY, FEBRUARY 9, I860, 

BY ABRAHAM B. CONGER, President, 

'/ 

AND 

ADDRESS OF BENJ. N. HUNTINGTON, 

On taking the Chair as President elect. 




PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



r 



ALBANY: 

WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
1860. 



ADDRESS. 



Fellow Members of the New York State Agricultural Society : 

In the year 1791, at the Senate Chamber in the 
city of New York, the Hon. John Sloss Hobart 
in the chair, certain rules and regulations were 
adopted for the governance of an association, to be 
known as " The Society for the Advancement of 
Agriculture, Manufactures and Arts." Two years 
thereafter, and about the time of the establishment 
of the Board of Agriculture of Great Britain, a 
charter was granted to the Society, by the Legis- 
lature of this State, in which it is a source of high 
satisfaction to us, to recount the names of the 
distinguished men of that age, the tutelary genii 
of an infant commonwealth, enrolled in long array 
as corporators in this institution, and ever to be 
remembered as the foremost promoters of Agri- 
cultural Art and Science. Those curious in such 
matters would not fail to notice the limitation in 
the act, imposed by the jealous care of the law- 



makers of that clay, but which from our present 
point of view, seems to have been specially pointed 
in irony, that the clear yearly value of the real 
and personal estate, which the Society might there- 
after acquire, should not exceed the sum of eight 
hundred pounds. 

The first annual oration before this Association, 
was delivered by the late Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, 
then rising with rapid strides to the zenith of his 
fame, as a physician and philosopher, to which we 
allude, not so much for the purpose of rehearsing 
his doubts as to the beneficial action of quick 
lime on soils rich in vegetable matter, his chagrin 
that "plaster, so much extolled by the Pennsyl- 
vanians, had failed so egregiously on Long Island," 
or his recommendation for the introduction into 
this country of the tamed Buffalo of Europe as a 
beast of burden ; but to accredit the clear and 
masterly manner in which he states the momentous 
question of artificial fertilization, and raises the 
inquiry whether much would ever be gained to 
our Agriculture from the introduction of the man- 
gel-wurzel ; questions still clamorous for an answer, 
and which have come down to us, bridging the 
span of nearly three-quarters of a century, fraught 
with a more imperious necessity for their solution. 



This Society kept up a fitful existence, its names 
slightly variant under different charters which were 
granted, each for a limited term of years, until 
under the act of 1819, it received the cognomen 
of the Board of Agriculture, and was quickened 
into the exertion of a new but transient influence, 
by an appropriation of the sum of ten thousand 
dollars, which was mainly to be distributed among 
the County Societies. Provision was also made 
for the collecting and publishing of valuable infor- 
mation, in an annual volume to be distributed 
according to the wording of the statute among 
the good people of the State, the number however 
being limited to that of fifteen hundred. As long 
as the grants of Legislative aid were extended, 
these Societies maintained a prosperous appear- 
ance ; but when denied, both parent and off-shoots 
dwindled and perished, as plants accustomed for a 
time to high and continued stimulus, when thrown 
upon the resources of their native sands. 

But the good cause could not be overwhelmed 
by this general ruin, nor could the oblivious cold- 
ness of the powers that be, dishearten the friends 
of our profession. A few of the most zealous and 
enlightened of these came up to this Capitol, 
twenty-eight years ago, and instituted the Society 



whose name we perpetuate. Their aim, as expressed 
in their circular letter, was to resuscitate, and mainly 
as before, to encourage and promote the organiza- 
tion of County and Local Societies of Agriculture 
and Horticulture. Their modest hope was, that 
they might be enabled to embody the wisdom of 
their time, as well as direct its yearnings after a 
clearer insight into the economy of nature, through 
the columns of a journal to be recognized as the 
organ of the Society. They solicited communi- 
cations of ''well attested experiments and facts," 
from the tillers of the soil then in best repute, and 
expressed the belief that the fund so to be col- 
lected could " not fail to enrich very greatly the 
community at large." 

The leading spirit of this movement was one 
who, at a mature age, had retained the large 
enthusiasm of his native land. A Frenchman by 
birth, he was the owner of large estates in Jefferson 
county — Le Ray de Chaumont — who, on assuming 
the first presidency of this Society, vindicated its 
choice in his election, as he bore testimony to the 
fact, that he then represented the only county 
society which had survived the general wreck. 
But the master-worker in the new association was 
one who, like Franklin, was a printer by trade, 



and had established, about the close of the last 
war, a newspaper in this city, for which he, for 
several years, maintained its claim as possessed of 
" an hundred eyes," while with constant vigilance 
and unclouded vision, he surveyed the political 
horizon of Ins day. After some years, vexed with 
the turmoil of the spirits he had summoned from 
the vasty deeps of political strife, he retired to pass 
the residue of his days on yonder hills, in practice 
and study, as a farmer. The reputation which he 
had thus gained, was soon merged into that more 
extended renown, acquired as the Corresponding 
Secretary of the Society, and the Editor of the 
Albany Cultivator, and his stores of learning, ever 
diffused and ever cumulating, treasured up in the 
pages of that journal, and inventoried with scien- 
tific skill in the treatises he subsequently published, 
have won for him a distinction so high, that he 
may be ever appropriately regarded as the Jethro 
Tull of American husbandry. Need I say in the 
presence of those who sympathized and assisted in 
his labors in the early up-building of this Society, 
that I seek to commemorate the virtues and the 
fame of the late Judge Buel. 

By the methods I have indicated, and chiefly by 
that of maintaining its position as the patron of 



8 

the local associations, the Society was gradually 
obtaining the confidence and respect of the great 
body of our fanning community, and was per- 
fecting its scheme for a more thorough and 
extended usefulness, until it had fulfilled the novi- 
tiate prescribed by the satirist of the Sabine Farm, 
for the full development of all human conceptions 
and plans; and at its annual meeting, in 1841, 
expectant of the encouragement to be permanently 
offered through the munificence of the Legislature, 
it engrafted on its previous scheme of exhibitions 
of industrial products, (which you will bear in 
mind, were restricted to the limits of each county,) 
a plan which gave it reality and life, as a State 
institution. The resolution to hold annual fairs, 
in which the farming and manufacturing resources 
of the entire Commonwealth, might be represented, 
met with no dissenting voice, the Constitution of 
the Society was amended accordingly, and at once 
its unprecedented career of prosperity opened 
before it. 

As we thus recall the time and occasion which 
ushered in for us such a series of signal successes, 
we may not be forgetful of those which were pre- 
clusive of it, and when, in conformity with a 
usage sedulously cherished from the earliest days 



of our Society, we are here convened to celebrate, 
under its present Constitution, its twentieth anni- 
versary, we may be reminded that it is the twenty- 
ninth of the old style, and that we have for our 
assembling to-night, a sanction as grave and as 
authoritative as that which an unremitting service 
to the public welfare, paid by us for more than a 
quarter of a century, and by those who ministered 
before us for the half century preceding, can 
confer, and a memory and a fellowship, now grow- 
ing ancient and venerable, claiming an older birth 
than that of the proudest of our Anglo-Saxon com- 
peers, the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 

And without boasting, we may add, that we 
possess a heritage as rich in the natural resources 
of farming wealth, a field for experiment and 
operation, as varied and as extended ; have made 
with far less of patronage showered upon us, or 
the body of farmers we represent, achievements in 
practical skill and science, applied to our art as 
illustrious ; command an influence as remotely felt, 
and as universally conceded throughout the civil- 
ized world ; and enjoy a fame as bright and as 
enduring also, we trust, as theirs. 

But time has not circled our name with his 

wreathed years, without exacting his tribute. His 

2 



10 

last chaplet has not been added, ere he had gathered 
three of our most estimable associates ; one* who 
twenty years ago presided over our councils with 
his wonted benignity, and two others who actively 
participated in our labors and aspirations, the onef 
as Vice-President from the fifth district, and the 
other, X charged with our fiscal cares for many 
years. It would be futile to attempt to measure 
the impulse given to our then uncertain destinies, 
by the calm courage and the trustful work of our 
venerable President, or to estimate the co-operative 
influence of those later associates, who now share 
his rest and honors. Good men ! brave and useful 
men ! their doings are written, and their memories 
will be embalmed in our chronicles. 

But if lamentingly, we are constrained to cry out 
" The Fathers !" where are they ? it is not with 
a corresponding solicitude that we raise the inquiry, 
" the sons, the successors, where 1 what are they ?" 
For here they are about us, responsive to our call, 
and in obedience to our behests, ready to take upon 
them their share in this great work, thoughtful alike 
of the memories and attainments of those who have 
gone before us, and sensitively alive to the respon- 
sibilities which cluster about their accession. 

* Judge Van Bergen, of Coxsackie. t B. B. Kirtland, of Albany. 
t Judge Turrill, of Oswego. 



11 

We stand now where, for a moment in our 
existence, our past and future seem, as by a spell 
from some magic wand, lapped in the embrace of 
the present. And if, while we review the work 
accomplished, and scrutinize with earnest and 
resolved gaze that which remains, to an observer 
outside of our circle it appeareth as a mere hallu- 
cination, and the wonder is passing strange that 
the inauguration ceremonies do not proceed, that 
the incoming administration seems to cling to that 
about to retire, as if loth to let it go; or that 
reversing the rule ordinarily adopted in the con- 
duct of human affairs, that which is itself dissolving 
is tracing the path for that which is just assuming 
the direction of an executive trust ; let him remem- 
ber that under these forms of change the labor 
abideth, and is sustained as cheerfully in the 
humblest as in the foremost ranks ; that whatsoever 
is prosecuted with success, is directed in its first 
steppings by a wise forecast, and that in the bonds 
of a fraternity constituted as ours, there is neither 
the aspiration for, nor the exercise of power. 

Our Society sustains its beneficent relations to 
the community of farmers, and to the Agricultural 
world at large, under a twofold office. The one 
is annually fulfilled in its great exposition, where 



12 

its wealth of offerings is revealed for the instruction, 
and displayed to the admiring gaze of the million. 
The other is more equably administered through 
it> Executive Board at the regular sessions, consist- 
ing partly in the maturing of its preparations for 
the first, but mostly in the consideration of methods 
best adapted for the discovery of new truths, or the 
rescue of the old from neglect and disuse, and for 
their proof and reduction to the necessities and 
contingencies of the farmer's life. Now, while it 
would be quite impossible to pass all or the greater 
part of these topics under review, within the limits 
prescribed for such an address, a few will be 
selected as bearing upon the business or material 
interests of our Society, and some theoretic views 
stated, some practical inferences suggested, touching 
questions of no light importance to Agricultural 
Science. 

Our late Fair has received its full meed of praise 
which it is far from my purpose at this time to 
seek to enhance. As by general consent, there 
has been accorded to it, the credit of an unparal- 
leled success, you will indulge me in saying, that 
my own personal recollections hinge principally 
upon its general and pervading harmony. A show, 
well balanced in all its proportions, with an arrange- 



13 

ment of the ground and location of structures, 
which expressed a long sought desideratum in our 
councils, it welcomed under a benignant sky, its 
throngs of exhibitors and judges, visitors and 
attendants, who participated in, and in turn cor- 
dially ministered to the general satisfaction and 
service. In fact, not only among our own people, 
but with guests from sister sovereignties, the feel- 
ings of delight manifested were unalloyed, save 
perchance by a sense of surprise at the extent and 
magnitude of our preparations, and their com- 
pleteness in all their parts. But when I consider 
how nearly the serenity of our enjoyment was 
being marred by an outbreak which at one time it 
was feared might have become riotous, I cannot 
but advert to its cause as far, at least, as the limits 
of delicacy on such an occasion permit, in the 
hope that by attracting attention thereto, the 
Society may in future be relieved from any danger 
of its repetition. The lessees of certain booths 
erected near the main entrance to the Fair claimed 
the right of selling spirituous and fermented 
drinks in them, by a right anterior to the pos- 
session, as yielded to the Society, of the grounds, 
and not only so, but by removing some of the 
boards, which separated these booths from the inte- 



14 

rior of Otir enclosure, sought to make sale to per- 
sons within the same. This was not only contrary 
to the statutes of the State, but in contravention 
of the positive rules and the established usage of 
our Society, and threw upon it the necessity and 
expense of increasing its police for the enforcement 
of its regulations. There ensued, what I think I 
do not over-estimate, the risk of an imminent and 
deadly breach of the peace, which it was believed 
b}^ those associated with me, was only prevented 
by the exercise of the powers granted to the officers 
of the Society, under a late statute. Now, while 
it may be easily conceded that the farmers of this 
State, who have so uniformly banished this perilous 
stuff — this deadly pest — of intoxicating drink from 
their farm service, have a right to be secured 
against its intrusion at their annual festive gather- 
ings ; I may further insist, and this is the point 
I especially desire to make, that the localities, 
through their committees and principal citizens, 
who from time to time may invite the Society to 
hold its Fair on the ground provided by them, 
should use every precaution against any infringe- 
ment of the laws, or of public decency, and take 
also upon themselves every reasonable respon- 
sibility of securing through their local magistracy, 



15 

the summary punishment of offenders; and this as 
a matter of honorable courtesy to the officers of 
the Society, who coming in the midst of them as 
guests, should neither be detailed to the suppres- 
sion of local disorders, or by contingency sum- 
moned as witnesses in any prosecution arising 
therefrom. 

I urge, then, that the Society should receive 
ample local aid not only in the observance of the 
rules adopted for the rigid exclusion of intoxi- 
cating liquors as a beverage, from within the 
enclosures of its fair grounds, as well as the 
enforcement of the statutes of the State in all 
approaches to the same; but also in everything 
which militates against the public peace, or 
threatens the welfare or the lives of the thousands 
brought thither, who as the Society, may claim a 
hospitable protection and care. 

On grounds of a like public morality, I may 
insist that the conditions in the bond and agree- 
ment given to the Society by the local committee 
in regard to the completion of all arrangements 
touching the Fair, and especially of the structures 
for the reception of cattle or goods to be exhibited, 
should receive a full compliance, and that by the 
day appointed. On no pretext of haste, or of excuse 



1G 

for some improvidence, should the sound of the 
hammer ever be heard on the Sabbath, in the work 
of such erections, and if exhibitors do not make their 
entries within the time specified in the Society's 
poster, so as to give ample notice of any further 
accommodations required, they should expect no 
protection against their own indifference or heed- 
lessness, which might involve, on the part of the 
Society, its officers or agents, a violation of the 
day of rest. 

The policy of the Society, in regard to the 
rotation of its Fairs, is believed to be securely 
established. As the King's court of old, of which 
it was boasted that it brought justice to every 
man's door, so our Fairs bring the advanced 
knowledge of Agricultural and Mechanical im- 
provements into the different neighborhoods of the 
State. And as it is their principal object to diffuse 
among our farmers the knowledge of our accumu- 
lating improvements as widely as possible, so it is 
necessary to gather about their exhibition the 
greatest number possible of our Agricultural pop- 
ulation. I therefore recommend, that in future our 
railroad and other companies engaged in the 
transportation of persons, be solicited to issue as 
in former years, to those attending our Fairs, 



17 

excursion tickets. These have heretofore induced 
many to visit our exhibitions, who otherwise would 
have remained at home, and will not only increase 
the receipts of these companies, hut also those of 
the Society. And this last is a consideration of no 
light importance to its future and permanent inte- 
rests. Though so long established, it has accumu- 
lated nothing, and owing to the large expenditures 
at our late Fair, principally those connected with the 
Police Department, the surplus left from receipts, 
greater than ever before, will be, beyond expecta- 
tion, light. But it is hoped that with economy 
judiciously administered, and in the observance of 
those prudential measures previously indicated, 
which will lighten the burden of protecting the 
property of exhibitors, and maintaining the public 
order, the Society will, by increasing its annual 
receipts, be able to lay aside not only enough to 
make up the deficiencies of an unfavorable Fair, 
which has heretofore been its highest financial as- 
piration, but a sum whose interest alone will be 
sufficient to protect it against any such disasters. 
I know it has many excellent friends who have 
thought that sound policy required that it should 
amass nothing except at intervals, but I believe 
that on reflecting upon the financial condition 



18 

of our Commonwealth as it may possibly exist 
not many years hence, tliey will yet conclude 
that it would be wise to place this Society in 
a position so independent of Legislative or ex- 
trinsic aid, that it may nowise be cumbered in 
its beneficent operations, and that its premiums 
in money and plate may rank with those offered 
by any Society in the Union, and may then in 
general estimation be of a value co-ordinate with 
that heretofore universally conceded to its diploma. 
If the brief outline of the early history of our 
Society, which I attempted at the opening of this 
Address, is not without its interest to those pleased 
with antiquarian researches, it is also not without 
a valuable lesson to us, and to all associated in the 
advancement of Agricultural pursuits. It has, I 
trust, with reference to the influence of Societies 
constituted as ours, demonstrated satisfactorily the 
importance of Fairs, and that without these they 
could maintain only a brief and chequered exist- 
ence. Whether annually or biennially or at longer 
interval, these exhibitions serve to keep alive the 
connection of our Societies with the great body 
of the people, and to give palpable proof that 
their interests are identical with ours. The sug- 
estion, it is true, lias been brought forward in 



19 

certain quarters, that a Society representing an 
extended interest, might exist as a bureau of Agri- 
culture, but it could only maintain its being by 
governmental patronage or immense endowments, 
and then it would be a most arduous task to diffuse 
its influence or establish its relation with the masses 
it sought to benefit. 

Our Society has an abiding, a home interest in 
the work of speeding the plow within the limits of 
our own State, and of arresting and furnishing 
the sufficient corrective for that alarming deterio- 
ration in our Agricultural products, as observed by 
the census reports from 1845 to 1850, and still 
believe not to have entirely ceased. I had intended 
to draw your attention to some of these items 
of diminished production in detail, and to reiterate 
the assurances submitted by a late President,* for 
a more energetic and thorough tillage, as furnished 
in the superiority of our home markets over 
those of the great west, with reference to the 
transit to our Commercial Emporium of cereal 
products for foreign consumption; which in a 
natural state of things, represents the interest of 
at least fifty dollars per acre, as the advantage 
which every tillable acre of our State has over 
any lying west of the lakes, facilities of trans- 

* Judge Cheever, in his annual address for 1855. 



20 

portation to the great routes of travel being equal; 
but the vexed discussion in other quarters of topics 
intimately connected with this, forbid any more 
explicit allusion to it. 

I may, however, say in reference to this subject 
of diminished production, that it was with no little 
interest I marked the great sensation produced at 
the opening of our session, in the reading of the 
report of the Executive Committee, who reviewed 
the alarming statistics from the Agricultural Re- 
port of the State of Ohio of the destruction of 
sheep — one-eighth of a million in number — in 
the previous year, and that by marauding kennels 
of dogs. Such a statement is well calculated to send 
a shudder through the breast of any disposed to 
the study and practice of a true economy; but 
fearful as these figures are, they are but the sha- 
dow of those which ascertained, as by the census 
previously referred to, the dwindled sheep-flocks 
of the farmers of this State. 

Three millions of sheep in five years, or at the 
rate of six hundred thousand per annum, is the 
story of their thinning out, and though it may be 
insisted that but a fraction of this number was 
taken off by unleashed whelps, yet it cannot be 
concealed that their incursions lie at the basis of 



21 

the discouragement and decline of tins husbandry. 
Knowing that it is the most profitable branch of 
feeding which the farmer has, whether for quick 
returns of moneys invested, or for the manurial 
wealth accumulated in the fold, and that in con- 
nection with root-culture, it is the main hope we 
possess for the restoration of our soils, even to its 
ancient standard of productiveness, it is quite un- 
accountable, that such supineness on this subject, 
is manifested by the representative farmers in our 
Legislative Hall. Interests that might be indicated 
commercially by millions of dollars, and agricul- 
turally in the facilities afforded for a higher tillage 
and a maximum yield, by as many millions more, 
are not only jeoparded, but wholly disregarded ; 
as if the howl of curs was more grateful than the 
bleating of flocks, and the design of improvident 
legislation by an inefficient tax, was to let these dis- 
turbers of the night and burglars of the farm- 
yard, pass yet a little longer unwhipt, or pardon 
me for saying, unhung of justice. 

I shall draw but briefly on your patience in 
noticing the last of those topics, affecting directly 
the outward material interests of the farmer which 
I purposed to review, the subject of steam-culture. 
This has engaged the serious consideration of our 



22 

Society, and commanded its liig'liest premiums. I 
may safely speak the general sentiment of our 
Board, when I say that in a mechanical point of 
view, the ponderous instruments heretofore brought 
forward, are as averse to our system of tillage 
and our wants, as the massive unwieldy im- 
plements of husbandry projected and in use in 
the old world at least a quarter of a century 
ago, if not more so ; and that in a scientific point 
of view, the turning over of furrows is not a 
desideratum, as the later researches of our chem- 
ists prove that what we need, is the thorough 
commingling of the particles of the soil, so that in 
the chemical play between them when brought 
newly together, the mineral food of the plant may 
be best supplied. 

This admixture and juxtaposition we now best 
attain by spade husbandry, and this should be 
imitated, if not improved upon, in any new 
mechanical contrivance for the application of steam 
to the comminution and deepening of soil, by a 
rapidly rotating motion, instead of a slow uplifting 
overturning movement. On this subject nothing 
can be added for the guidance of our mechanicians 
to the clear and comprehensive statement presented 
by my able and illustrious predecessor.* 

♦Judge McCoun, in tlxo Address of 1859. 



23 

But let me pass to the other themes proposed, 
more congenial to the taste of such as study nature 
in those various moods in which she hides herself 
from the untutored eye. As briefly as may be 
consistent with their due presentation, I will offer 
some considerations on the physiological laws 
which promote the growth, and maintain the vital 
functions of plants, and which seem to be expressed 
in the selection and assimilation of their food. 

I may bespeak, then, your especial attention, 
while essaying to bring to your notice a theory in 
regard to the motion of fluids in plants, first pro- 
pounded more than a century and a quarter ago, 
and which has lain comparatively dormant, until 
restored about ten years since, to the arena of 
scientific thought, by the illustrious sage of Munich. 
In the year 1727, Stephen Hales, a Kentishman 
by birth, and a clergyman by profession, published 
a treatise, entitled " Vegetable Statics," in which, 
by methods of observation and induction, applied 
with eminent success, he demonstrated that the 
motion of the juices of plants, could not be 
accounted for by the forces of capillary attraction, 
but was maintained and might be measured by 
the evaporation going on from their surfaces above 
the ground. 



24 

Starting with the premise that men would dis- 
cern more of that regular and orderly economy, 
which the Divine Architect has impressed on all 
the works of his hands, in the use of the facul- 
ties by which they are enabled to "number, weigh 
and measure" those parts of the creation which 
come within their observation ; he proceeded in a 
series of carefully conducted experiments, so to 
measure and weigh the appropriation as well as 
the elimination of fluids by plants of various kinds, 
that by comparing the results so obtained, he was 
able to deduce certain general laws, which coming 
down to us from the age of Newton, re-prove most 
of the subsequent investigations into the laws of 
vegetable physiology, by the evidence they furnish 
of a more masterly method. 

In the first experiment, conducted with a sun- 
flower of three and a half feet in height, to ascer- 
tain the quantity imbibed and perspired by it 
within stated times, he found the mean rate of 
perspiration in twelve hours of a warm dry day, 
from Jul}' to August, to be twenty ounces, or 
thirty-four cubic inches of water; and that per- 
spired during a dry warm night, without any sen- 
sible dew, to be about three ounces ; while if the 
dew was barely perceptible, the perspiration was 



25 

nothing, or if heavy, or its precipitation was 
increased by rain, the plant and the pot in which 
it was contained, were increased in weight. By a 
very ingenious process, he measured the leaf sur- 
face of the plant, which he found to be over fifty- 
six hundred square inches, and by a like method, 
determined the absorbent surface of the periphery 
of the roots to be nearly twenty-three hundred 
square inches ; so that the proportion of the leaf 
surface to that of the roots, was as five to two, a 
proportion which also expressed the ratio of the 
velocity with which water entered the surface of the 
roots, to supply the expenditure of perspiration, to 
the velocity with which the sap perspired. The 
area of the transverse cut of the middle of the 
stem being a square inch, if it were entirely hol- 
low, the velocity with which the fluid passed 
through it, would be expressed by 34 to 12, the 
number of its cubic inches and of hours occu- 
pied in its transmission, but inasmuch as the stem, 
when dried, was found to waste three parts of its 
entire weight, its woody fibre was believed to fill 
up, at least, one-fourth of its area, and thus, the 
ratio of such velocity would be increased one- 
third, and stand as 45 J to 12. But, if as suggested, 

in his third experiment with a vine, the sap rises 
4 



26 

under the action of the heat of the sun, in a vapory 
form, this ratio may be increased tenfold, and stand 
as 37 to 1. Comparing- the perspiratory surface of 
this plant, which weighed only three pounds, with 
that of a healthy man weighing one hundred and 
sixty pounds, he found that it was two and a half 
times greater ; that the plant transpired seventeen 
times more bulk of food, though only two-sevenths 
in weight, and that the rate? of perspiration for 
equal surfaces and equal times, was as between the 
man and the plant, as ten to three. This great 
excess in the man, being accounted for by the 
greater heat of his skin than that of the plant sur- 
face, the query is raised, whether the sum of the 
areas of the pores lying in equal surfaces in the 
man and sunflower, must not be as sixteen to one, 
and the conclusion is hinted at as probable, that 
many of the distempers to which plants are sub- 
ject, are owing, as in the case of animals, to a 
stoppage of their perspiratory functions by an 
inclement atmosphere. I have been the more 
willing to give this abstract, in order that not only 
the method with which Hales started, but the 
manner in which he applied it in this and all his 
experiments, might be appreciated, and serve as a 
guide to any future investigation of this kind, 



27 

which, with the more delicate instruments possessed 
by us, would, no doubt, render the expression of 
these numerical ratios more exact. 

Noticing only at present in the intermediate 
experiments made with plants of the most diverse 
characteristics, the fixed relations in each plant 
between the root and leaf surface, which makeM 
necessary the reduction of the latter by lopping off 
branches in transplanting, unless this is so care- 
fully done as not to cut off any of the delicate 
fibres of the roots ; also, that the leaves of ever- 
greens have a less capacity for evaporation than 
those of deciduous trees ; and also that fruit has an 
exhaling power proportionate to its surface, as 
compared with that of the leaves, we rest for a 
moment, at the 10th and 11th experiments, by 
which the evaporative power of the leaf surface 
is more clearly exhibited, and from which the 
conclusion is drawn, that the motion of the sap is 
at least in its proximate cause principally depend- 
ent on this power. 

Hales took an apple branch, three feet long, 
and one-half inch in diameter, full of leaves and 
lateral shoots, and to it hermetically fastened a 
tube seven feet long and five-eighths of an inch in 
diameter, and having filled the tube with water, he 



. 28 

immersed the branch completely in' a vessel of 
sufficient capacity and full of water. On the third 
day in the morning, the branch was taken out, and 
hung, with the tube affixed and newly filled, in the 
open air. The results were carefully noted as also 
those of similar experiments at different times, by 
which he was enabled to see how little was per- 
spired, in a rainy day or when there were no 
leaves on the branches. In comparing these 
results, we find that the water was imbibed and 
exhaled by the branch with the leaves on and in 
the open air, with a velocity nearly one hundred 
times greater than when it was submerged in the 
water. Having cut off a branch similarly con- 
nected Avith a tube, thirteen inches below the same, 
it was placed in a vessel having a known quantity 
of water in it, and it resulted that in thirty hours 
it absorbed three times as much as was forced 
through the grosser part of the stem, fastened to 
the tube by the constant pressure of a column of 
water seven feet in height. 

In his twenty-first experiment, at a period of 
considerable drouth, he laid bare the root of a 
thriving pear tree, digging down to the depth of 
two and a half feet, and having cut it off, he 
cemented the stump which was one-half inch in 



29 

diameter, to a glass tube, VTj ' :\ having filled with 
water, he immersed in a cistern of mercury. In 
six minutes the root had imbibed the water with 
so much vigor, that the mercury rose in the tube 
eight inches, which corresponded to a column of 
water nine feet in height, and was found by Hales, 
in his later hgemastatical researches, to be nearly 
equal to the force with which the blood moves in 
the large femoral arteries, or even the carotids of 
the horse, and one and a half times greater than 
in the like currents of a sheep or a dog. In this, 
as in subsequent experiments, he found that the 
height to which the mercury rose, depended upon 
the heat of the sun communicated to the leaves 
and stem, and upon the hygrometric condition of 
the atmosphere; that the absorbent force was 
diminished by any injury to the plant, and was 
greater in a fresh cutting, whether of root or of 
branch, than in one exposed to water or air for 
any length of time ; that this force was not neces- 
sarily dependent upon the vessels in the inner or 
outer bark, for when these were entirely cut away 
the leaves and twigs still absorbed and evaporated 
water through the residue of the stem ; and that 
the measure of the force as given in his experi- 
ments should be increased about one-third, inas- 



30 

much as lie discovered that the absorbent power 
was diminished by the expulsion of particles of 
air from the plant into the tube into which it was 
cemented. 

It is highly probable that this gas was oxygen 
liberated by the action of sun-light from carbonic- 
acid gas, which, as recent investigations in vege- 
table physiology prove, is formed in every portion 
of a vegetable structure — as well that encased in 
the soil as that surrounded by the atmosphere — 
and of course implies a power in the evolution of 
this gas, as of pressure against the walls of the 
cells in which it is formed. This power acting in 
conjunction with the evaporation of watery par- 
ticles from the surface, giving rise to a partial 
vacuum in all the vessels of a plant near the 
same, is thus accelerated by the pressure of the 
external air, and both when in play are constantly 
operating, the latter as the paramount force in the 
propulsion of the fluid contents of every plant, 
from its absorbent to its eliminating surfaces. 

One of the most practical applications which 
Hales made of these conclusions, was in explica- 
tion of the causes of the hop-blight. In the year 
1723, he says, "when ten or fourteen days' almost 
continual rains fell about the latter half of July, 



31 

after four months' dry weather," the most promising 
vines " were all infected with mold or fen in their 
leaves and fruit, while the then poor and unprom- 
ising- hops escaped and produced plenty." As con- 
firmatory proof of the views he presents on this 
subject, he further says, "this rain on the then warm 
earth made the grass shoot out as fast as if it were 
in a hotbed, and the apples grew so precipitately, 
that they were of a very flashy constitution, so as 
to rot more remarkably than had ever been remem- 
bered." Hales had in his ninth experiment shown 
the wonderful power of absorption of water, 
which the hop-vine possessed, and had calculated 
that the amount consumed in every twelve hours' 
day, independent of what passed from the surface 
of the earth, were for every acre "an area of liquor 
as broad as an acre and one one-hundred and first 
(tot) part of an inch deep." 

When, then, with such enormous power of 
absorption (a constitutional peculiarity of this 
and most annual plants), the atmosphere was 
itself heavily laden with moisture, the power of 
throwing off the fluids taken up so rapidly was 
checked, "the kindly perspiration of the leaves" 
was hindered, and the sap stagnated and speedily 
corrupted, as he has shown when condensing 



32 

perspiratory vapor in glass retorts to be readily 
effected. On like principles ho accounted for the 
fire-blast, the explanation being similar to that 
which gardeners have formed into a practical rule, 
when they avoid putting their bell-glasses over 
their cauliflowers early in a frosty morning, before 
the dew was evaporated off them. 

Hales had observed the vines in the middle of 
a hop ground all scorched up, when a " hot gleam 
of sunshine has come immediately after a shower 
of rain ; at which time the vapors are often seen 
with a naked eye, but especially with reflecting 
telescopes, to ascend plentifully," and there being 
no "dry gravelly vein in the ground along the 
course of this scorch," the vapors forming a dense 
medium acted as lenses over the surface of each 
plant, and so by wilting it and contracting its 
pores deprive8 it of its evaporating power. From 
these experiments and deductions of Hales, you 
may readily apprehend the conditions under which 
plants can maintain a healthy condition ; you at 
once infer the necessity of drainage for the pur- 
pose of removing too large a supply of fluids from 
the roots as well as of absorbing a temporary 
excess in sudden showers ; that mold or fen fungi or 
excrescences indicate an abnormal supply or circu- 



33 

lation, and that a sudden loss of vitality in plants 
proves a " suppressed transpiration" of their fluids. 
It was reserved for the quick eye of a Liebig 
to make application of these views to a just theory 
of the potato rot, which he says has been known 
to the oldest peasants from their youth, and was 
accurately described by Parmentier, who intro- 
duced this esculent into France ; and if the physi- 
ological inferences of Hales are applicable, then 
the remedy for this terrible disease must be sought 
in the conditions necessary for the avoidance of 
either a vehement blasting or of a stagnation of 
the pabulous currents *n the plant. As by the 
gradual removal of our forests and the exposure 
of large undrained surfaces to the action of winds 
and summer heat, we are liable to be visited with 
sudden showers during the time of the maturation 
of this root, followed immediately by the fierce 
blaze of the caloric beams of an almost meridian 
sun, it will be necessary, not only to secure 
thoroughly drained land for the cultivation of this 
crop, so that these hasty showers may be mostly 
drfcnk up by the warm and aerated earth, and no 
considerable portion of them be converted into 
vapor, which may invest the plants as with mirrors 
to refract the parching rays upon them, or which 



34 

may by a process of suffocation concentrate their 
juices in the cells and so ensure decay; but as we 
venture to suggest, to plant this crop in alternate 
rows with some other crop, having a greater 
capacity for absorbing moisture, or for resisting 
the process of suppression of the respiratory func- 
tion, or the scorching power of sun-light, and 
furnishing withal a shelter from this last under its 
shadow. It is believed that the Indian corn or 
sorghum might prove efficient in this manner; 
at any rate the trial with these or other interme- 
diate plants should be carefully made. It may be 
as in the interstitial fallows of the Lois-Weedon 
husbandry, so much vaunted for productive- 
ness by its inventor, that a more thorough venti- 
lation of the crop may be effected, tending to lift 
stagnating currents of vapor, as well as heavier 
dews secured, by presenting surfaces of unequal 
capacities for absorbing heat. 

It will suffice in order to prove the general law, 
as asserted by Hales, of the causes which govern 
the motion of the fluids of plants, to allude to what 
might seem to be an exception to the general ruje, 
the rise of sap or saccharine juices in the vine, 
the maple or birch trees and the like, before the 
leaves are fully developed. 



35 

In his thirteenth to his fifteenth experiments, 
Hales tested the power of capillary sap vessels in 
various ways. He showed that a cylindrical sec- 
tion of a vine as well as of an apple branch, when 
placed in water, continued for some days to exude 
a moisture from its upper surface, but could not 
raise any appreciable column of water, and re- 
peating this experiment on a tree which he had 
cut off two and a half feet from the ground, sepa- 
rating i " it, by this act, from all its twigs and leaves, 
obtained the like result, which was not varied 
when he dug up the trunk with its roots and placed 
them in a vessel of water. But had the leaves 
been spared, the result would have been wholly 
different, whether as previously shown the section, 
the upper part of the tree, or the tree itself had 
been placed in water; or whether the bark had 
been removed inner or outer, or both, in whole or 
in part as far as immersed in the water; or whether, 
as also appeared, the section or branch had imbibed 
the water in the natural way from the greater to 
the less end or vice versa. In his sixteenth ex- 
periment he satisfied himself that, contrary to 
received impressions, sap rose in the winter 
although in comparatively inappreciable quanti- 
ties, as he found that cuttings of filbert suckers, 



36 

vine branches and of some evergreen plants, when 
the transverse cuts were dipped in melted cement, 
" so as to prevent any moisture evaporating through 
the wounds,' 4 lost in weight, during an average 
period of eight days, from the one twenty-fourth 
to the one-third part of their weight, a waste 
which may be regarded as the index of the insen- 
sible perspiration they would have undergone had 
they remained in their natural connections. It is 
quite remarkable that it was the vine cutting that 
had lost the least, but the wonder subsides when 
we learn more of the idiosyncrasies of this plant. 
In the thirty-ninth experiment a vine stem which 
exhibited no indication of being expanded or con- 
tracted by heat or cold, in the bleeding or in the 
non-bleeding season, was affected by outward 
moisture, showing, as Hales says, "that the sap 
(even in its bleeding season) is confined in its 
proper vessels, and then it does not confusedly 
pervade every interstice of the stem as the rain 
does, which entering at the perspiring pores, soaks 
into the interstices and thereby dilates the stem." 
Supposing then by a peculiarity which makes the 
sap in the vine and in all bleeding trees to flow 
at certain seasons in larger quantities than are 
observed in other plants, it rises to seek its natural 



37 

perspiration at the points in the outer bark where 
the leaves are in embryo, and as these are being 
developed the insensible passes into a more copi- 
ous transpiration; we can understand why it is 
that when the trunk is completely severed near 
the root, during this flow, the copious current is 
neither arrested nor absorbed by the little that is 
left of the perspiratory medium, but is exuded 
until arrested by the care of the vine-dresser, or 
death ensues from exhaustion. 

The different phenomena observed principally 
during the bleeding season, as following the sec- 
tion of thriving shoots, or the entire severance of 
the stem, are stated in the thirty-fourth to thirty- 
eighth experiments. In the latter case the mercury 
rose from fourteen as high as thirty-eight inches, 
while in the case of three branches of the same 
vine, cut at different lengths and at various heights 
from the ground, the several columns ranged from 
twelve to twenty-six inches ; the same general law 
as to the manifestation of the favoring influences 
of warmth and a dry atmosphere in the evapora- 
tive surface being fulfilled, and undulations also 
noticed as verifying the difference between an 
imbibing and a pulsive force. 



38 

Having observed ; ' that in very hot weather many 
air bubbles would rise so as to make froth an inch 
deep, on the top of the sap in the tube," Hales 
affixed a small air pump to the top of a long tube, 
which had twelve feet height of sap in it, and he 
says "when I pumped, great plenty of bubbles 
arose, though the sap did not rise, but fall a little 
after I had done pumping." Hales supposed that 
these bubbles were composed of atmospheric air 
drawn in through the roots, but late analyses have 
determined their true nature, and have also ex- 
plained more satisfactorily what Hales ascribed to 
a general attractive force, which he supposed to 
reside in all the parts of vegetable organisms. We 
now know that the sap of the vine is very rich in 
carbonic acid, and that this is readily disengaged 
at a moderate temperature by the fermenting ac- 
tion of the nitrogenous contents or lining of the 
cells, on the saccharine particles of the sap, and 
we may conclude that its great vernal flow is in 
the main to be measured by the tensive power of 
the carbonic-acid gas, when being disengaged in 
the cells of the plant, and operating upwards 
against a partial or entire vacuum, unless when all 
the branches are cut off, and then simply against 
the weight of the atmosphere. 



39 

It was when this gas was removed from the 
column of sap by the air-pump that the sap fell. 
And when as the development of the shoots com- 
mences, "and the surface of the vine is greatly- 
increased and enlarged by the expansion of several 
leaves, whereby the perspiration is much increased 
and the sap more plentifully exhausted, it then 
ceases to flow in a visible manner." 

But I may not further dilate. If this attempt 
to bring to the notice of our farming community, 
the views of this admirable thinker on this great 
fundamental law of the vegetable economy, seem 
too elaborate, my apology must be found in the 
desire to present them in such a way as not merely 
to attract attention to them, but to excite to obser- 
vations and a thoughtful study after the same 
exemplar. 

It is difficult to realize the fact that a man uni- 
versally acknowledged as one of the brightest 
ornaments of the Royal Society during the eigh- 
teenth century, whose inventive talents planned 
ventilation for hospitals and prisons — whose bene- 
volence, not manifest alone in parochial duties, 
distinguished him as an apostle of temperance for 
his times, and whose " Statics " was honored in 
its introduction to the savans of France by one of 



40 

no less eminence than the Count de Buffon, should 
in this age for himself or his discoveries in vege- 
table physiology rarely receive mention in the 
standard treatises on that subject. In such a state 
of things it is not so wonderful that a century 
after Hales had explored the sources of the vital 
movement in plants, Dutrochet should claim as its 
immediate cause, a force residing in structures 
named spongioles and supposed to be found in the 
extremities of the radical fibre. Groping in the 
dark, he conjured up for these a factitious exist- 
ence and an imaginary function, and on such a 
basis reared his theoiy. The earnest student will 
not be perplexed by the opposition which ever 
and anon science receives from those who profess 
to be her votaries, or by the tardy progress she 
makes in the mastery of her true domain, when he 
calls to mind the inveterate obstinacy with which 
the classmen of the schools adhere to their compli- 
cated devices for unveiling the mysteries of nature, 
when he remembers that the Principia was a sealed 
book to the great body of mathematical scholars 
for more than two generations ; or when he notices 
in our day, since the theoiy of the respiratory 
process has been announced, by which we know 
that the supply of animal heat is derived from the 



41 

combustion of carbon in the oxygen inhaled at 
every breath, that attempts have been made to 
sustain the doctrine of a "balance in organic 
nature " by promulgating the idea that plants, 
as the "recipients of the power of the sun- 
beam," "transfer this power to the animal;" and 
that when consumed in the animal, the power 
so transferred is "expended in building up the 
organization, in producing locomotion and the 
incipient action of the heart," &c, and is re- 
turned by the animal to " celestial space, whence 
it emanated." 

To such fanciful notions we may oppose the 
simple teaching of the philosophy which has ex- 
plained the notion of fluids in plants, and which 
by a careful induction, may open the path of dis- 
covery to us of the efficient cause of the circulation 
of the blood in animals. At any rate, we may not 
rest upon any notion of the imprisoned sunbeams, 
nor, as more generally taught, of the automatic 
power of the red corpuscles of capillary action of 
the rhythmical propulsion of arterial currents, nor 
even upon the contractile movements of the heart, 
or the nervous force of the brain ; for we know 
that whenever the whole stress of the animal 

economy is thrown upon either of these, as when 
6 



42 

the perspiratory function is checked, or respiration 
impeded, or the waste-valves — if I may so speak 
of any internal organs — are closed, then their 
unnatural efforts, soon rendered convulsive, are 
speedily terminated in death. And I may be per- 
mitted to add, that if any mind is led to search 
after a more extended arena, for the operation of 
the evaporative force, as if the inquiry were raised 
whether this is not the display of some universal 
law in Nature, he may find such an investigation 
quite prepared for him in those matchless tracings 
of the atmospheric currents, brought to their pres- 
ent perfection by the indefatigable labors of gen- 
tlemen connected with our Coast Survey, and the 
Smithsonian Institution. In the viewless drift of 
the upper air, far above the sheen and tracery of 
the clouds, he may discern the surging of the void 
expanse, whose mighty whirl knows yet a law, 
and swaying the lower currents by its stately pro- 
gression, appoints their course, disperses their 
stagnant columns, and quickens their loitering 
march. And if he, to whose mind this perpetual 
unrest of the serial sea is not wholly a novelty, is 
disposed to admit the influence it may exert in 
relieving organic existences, whether vegetable or 
animal, from the suffocating pressure or deadly 



43 

taint of vapory masses, or malarious miasms, yet 
is unable to perceive what further benefit the 
mobile circulation of the ambient air may confer 
upon his material interests, or those of the farm- 
ers about him, he will learn how the fertilizing 
gases unspent in the service of vegetable life, 
whether near the poles or the equator, are wafted 
in perpetual cycles, concentrated in dews and rain, 
laving the hill and mountain sides, or precipitated 
upon arid levels ; and in all that garden-belt of 
America, through which the Father of waters urges 
his mighty floods till they are lost in the hoarse 
murmurings of the Atlantic surf, unchecked by the 
Alleghanies, they ride bravely on and greet with 
their choicest treasures, the bosom of his own 
Empire State. 

We have seen how necessary it is, in order to 
secure the normal healthful state of plants, that 
attention be paid to the balance between the 
receptivity of the atmosphere into which they 
respire, and the vigor they possess of absorbing 
and assimilating the elements of their nutrition. 
The wise husbandman postulates for the general 
purposes of his thrift, that the former is at the 
regular season of seed time and growth a constant 
quantity, and so directs his most careful study to 



44 

the latter, which he seeks to promote, by neither 
withholding the supply requisite for full develop- 
ment, nor by furnishing in excess food either 
inappropriate in kind, or profuse in measure. To 
know that the different plants we cultivate, require 
different kinds and quantities of food, for their per- 
fect growth, leads at once to the inquiry, what are 
these various elements of nutrition, and to what 
soils, for what plants, and in what proportions are 
they to be applied. Our Agricultural Chemists 
have for the solution of these questions, entered 
upon researches more intricate in their details of 
analysis, than any ever before proposed to the 
physical philosopher, and they deserve and will, I 
am confident, receive the lasting gratitude of all 
thoughtful tillers of the soil. They have revealed 
to us, what elements of plant food are derived 
from the atmosphere, and what from the soil. It is 
true the conclusions of fact and theory as attained 
by different investigators are not always the 
same. The humus theory has been exploded, the 
nitrogen theory is on the wane, and the mineral 
theory is fast gaining celebrity. But this indicates 
only to the reflective mind, that the veins of 
inquiry in these several directions have been or 
are in their turn soon to be exhausted. 



45 

The farmer is not to infer that the humus in 
his peaty deposits or in the decaying leaves of his 
forests, or the ammonia yielded in his manure 
heaps or supplied in the markets, are to be con- 
sidered valueless, when compared with phosphatic, 
siliceous or calcareous applications. Far from it. 
But he may know, and it would be wisdom for 
him to know, that by possibility he may have the 
two former in excess or in disproportion to the 
other necessary elements of plant food. If the 
humus theory has been exploded, it is simply be- 
cause we have discovered that humus is far from 
being the only supply of carbonaceous material, 
it having been taught us that the atmosphere 
yields the greater part of the supply; but it is 
none the less desirable to acquire the intelligence, 
that with lime added to it and, in some cases, silicic 
acid, the potash, which is the principal mineral in- 
gredient of humus, is liberated for the food of the 
plant. So with regard to nitrogen, if supplied 
too largely in ammoniacal form, it is found to be 
injurious or destructive ; yet the discovery has 
been made that the soil has a power of absorbing 
it, in almost miraculous proportion, the state- 
ment of which, in numbers, I will not draw upon 
your faith to honor, and leaves us upon the 



46 

threshold of a problem, as yet insoluble, how best 
this almost fabulous charm may be broken, by 
which so many volumes of a gaseous body are 
absorbed and kept in ward by the merest atoms of 
soil. 

It has been currently believed, by vegetable 
physiologists, that plants took up their mineral 
food in solution ; but Liebig has almost placed 
upon this notion the ban of a delusion, by patting 
forth the doctrine that plants may absorb their 
food, in atomic quantities, without the presence of 
water. It is believed that researches in this coun- 
try, by one formerly a pupil of his, may lead to 
the correction of the views entertained by the 
illustrious teacher. We learn, from other sources, 
that the specific gravity of the sap of the vine has 
been found to exceed, by eight or nine ten-thou- 
sandths parts, that of distilled water ; also from ex- 
periments made in England, that the wheat and pea 
plants, absorb from every one hundred thousand 
grains of water, only thirty-two and thirty-nine 
grains of mineral food respectively. While scien- 
tific men differ as to the details of these researches, 
and have based upon the facts accepted by them, 
individually, different theories; while the unlearned 
world have received some of their announcements 



47 

with Lootings of contempt, answered, not unfre- 
quently, by tones far from conciliatory ; it is a plea- 
sant reflection for us that, at the present time, the 
feelings of antipathy between the scholarly and 
the practical agriculturists are allayed ; that con- 
cessions of error have been made on either side, 
and that the extremes are closing in solid phalanx 
for the investment of the common objects of their 
search— -facts, truth. 

And if any shall be encouraged to hope better 
things in the future of the mastery of their pro- 
fession, or have resolved themselves to assist in 
the attainment of this glorious end — to be patient, 
studious observers of the workings of nature in 
her several economies of life, or to seek to catch, 
upon the mirrors which science furnishes, the rays 
which may illuminate paths yet adumbrated — 
every object proposed and every hope cherished 
in the remarks I have had the honor to submit, 
will have been attained and gratified. 

G-entlemen of the Society, we sustain, in fellow- 
ship, important functions to the Institution in whose 
office and duties we are associated, to our brother 
farmers, whose labor and measure of prosperity we 
share, and to the commonwealth whose vast inte- 
rests so momently depend on our assiduity and toil. 



48 

Our State stands in the very gates of commerce ; 
Science brings her countless treasures, and Art 
prepares the caskets for their bestowment and use. 
Earth and sky profusely cast about food for grass, 
herb and tree, and by unerring laws guard each, 
yielding seed and fruit " after his kind," against 
deluging storms or desolating drought. Truly, our 
lines are cast upon a goodly land, whose unrivaled 
excellence transcends our praises ; and if, gentle- 
men, we may now no longer, in our imagination 
or by the light of science, trace those laws which 
secure for us so benign a present, and for our off- 
spring so glorious a destiny, let us accept them 
with a reverent trust ; if, for many of us, it is too 
late to seek to become interpreters of nature, let 
us, according to our best ability, so teach those 
who are soon to take our places, her great primal 
truths — that these, engraft upon their earliest being, 
may become the germ of other laws to be revealed 
in the next generation. So much I had hoped to 
say, in behalf of that College so lately planned for 
the instruction of our youths in the principles and 
pursuit of scientific agriculture; so brief a plea 
you will excuse when you know that this subject 
will be presented to you specially by the eloquent 
and erudite President of that Institution. 



49 

It is time that I should give place to him who, 
by your unanimous nomination and choice, suc- 
ceeds to the first office in your gift. Yet I may be 
permitted to say to this son of Oneida, whose prac- 
tical sagacity, abhorrence of pretense, and free- 
dom from guile, have won such a just apprecia- 
tion from his fellow citizens, in all his former pub- 
lic relations, that his accession to this new post of 
honor and duty will be greeted with full acclaim 
by his brother farmers from every section of the 
State, and that they, with us, hope great things 
from the moderation and beneficence of his com- 
mand. It is not my province, and if it were I am 
not able or worthy, to cast upon his shoulders the 
mantle of succession, but let him arise and receive 
it at the hands of a confiding brotherhood. 

7 



EEMAEKS 



BENJAMIN N. HUNTINGTON, 

THE 

NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT, 

ON TAKING THE CHAIR. 



Gentlemen of the JVew York State Agricultural Society : 

I am sure, while there are very many who can 
discharge the duties of President of your Society 
better, that there is no one who can more truly 
realize the kindness which has prompted you to 
bestow this honor upon me. 

I find it is a pleasant service to assist the Society 
in its good work of endeavoring to aid the farmer 
to such culture of the earth as will give him a 
better reward for his labor, and a happier home. 
The distinguished gentlemen who have preceded 
me in this station have left an example of duty, 
which I shall be glad to imitate to the best of my 
ability. 



51 



I know that those gentlemen associated with me 
in the management of your Society's affairs will 
be the most faithful of assistants, and will materi- 
ally lighten my labors ; and while the Corres- 
ponding Secretary continues in his present posi- 
tion, I think you will all agree with me that every 
concern of the Society will be promptly cared for. 

You have recommended the place for holding 
the next Annual Fair, at Elmira ; it is a portion of 
the State where the Society has only once held 
its exhibition ; the enterprise and liberality of 
that people is well known, and I feel assured that 
they will show to the State, that agriculture is not 
neglected in the southern counties of New York. 

Gentlemen, I thank you for the honor conferred 
upon me, and enter on my duties, hoping most of 
all for your indulgence and friendly assistance. 




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